Tricks for saving money at WDW

[pennyfan01]

After getting a small earful for asking about the finger scans I tought I'd throw this topic out there.

What are some ways you have heard or used to save $ while at Disney?

Not like bringing your own drinks in, but I have heard people say to park at the marketplace and then use the buses, not only can it save you parking (What $30 a week) but a lot of people end up at the marketplace in the evening so they could use the buses and their car would be at the marketplace when they got done.

Stuff like that, now don't get moral on us here, I know for a fact that people out there have come up with little tricks like that. If you are going to belittle someone and question their morals for saving $5 on parking please keep it civil, people aren't theives, some are just very economical!

 

[Hagred]

There are lots of tips and tricks on the budget board. I scan it every once in awhile for some good ideas.

 

[eeyore0062]

"Not like bringing your own drinks in, but I have heard people say to park at the marketplace and then use the buses, not only can it save you parking (What $30 a week) but a lot of people end up at the marketplace in the evening so they could use the buses and their car would be at the marketplace when they got done."

Yes, this can save you money, but if you stay onsite, why bother?
Also, have you tried to get a parking space during the day at DTD lately? It is horendous... so perhaps more offsite guests are doing this then we think. We tried to park at DTD to shop around 12 pm one day, and it took us almost 20 minutes to find a decent parking space. There are better ways to save money!

One way, is to bring a cooler, get the free ice from the ice machine and bring your own drinks to drink in the rooms.

Eat breakfast in your room.

Eat your sitdown meal at lunch instead of dinner.

Pack granola bars in your backpack for those munchie times in the park.

 

[jdkdorn]

We stayed at AKL and used the valet parking daily. On the third day we found out that if you pay once for the day you can valet park at any hotel. We parked at the Boardwalk and then walked over to epcot. We wanted to go to the World Showcase, so we avoided to parking lot at Epcot and all the the areas before the Showcase. The nicest part was that at the end of the night it was a lot easier to go back to the hotel and avoid the crush. We had breakfast on the boardwalk before going to Epcot, so we did use the resources of the hotel.

 

[Claudia Kellenberger]

I try to always ask for *Tap* water with all of my meals.

 

[yecats]

It has to be a true art form to budget at Disney. They take every opportunity to get your money at every turn. As stated above read the budget board.

We recently went to WDW for 10 days. In order to save money (which we used most of the savings for a better sit down meal at night instead of having fast-food all the time) we decided to stay offsite (booked through Priceline, bigger room than would've had on Disney property), drove from home (no rental needed), and brought breakfast foods for room, all snacks and water. We had a nice size refrig. in our room and had several soft drinks, milk and orange juice in it. We usually ate a fastfood lunch in the parks, ate our snacks and had great dinners at MK, DTD and EPCOT. The probable best way to save money would be to buy the AP (esp. if going for 8 plus days). This way you do get nice discounts for hotels on Disney property, free parking whether staying on or off the grounds and some restaurants do give you a discount as well.

I know people who use to get FL. tickets from relatives that lived by the park and they saved money off of tickets that way but that was several years ago. Mousesavers has some good savings points as well. There are only so many savings options available when doing Disney.

 

[tar heel]

Here's a little one: order the largest soft drink available at counter service restaurants and ask for an extra cup of ice. Two drinks for the price of one!

 

[PennConn]

Originally posted by yecats
It has to be a true art form to budget at Disney. They take every opportunity to get your money at every turn.

The biggest disappointment was discontinuing The Disney Club !

 

[goofyernmost]

Now don't kill me for saying this, but that is the reason that I have never stayed on-site. The way I see it, the only thing I am going to do in the room is sleep and I don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to do that. I have always found Econo Lodge or Days Inn to be clean, comfortable and inexpensive. I always either drive my own car or rent one because there is so much more to see in Florida besides WDW, so I have transportation. I went to WDW last March, stayed off site for $38.00 per night. I can pay a lot of $6.00 parking fees with the savings from that. The only onsite hotel I would even be tempted to stay in is the Contemporary (tower) but I can stay a whole week off site for the cost of one night there.

Staying off site also means that I have multitudes of choices for eating. Check out route 192 and see if you have trouble finding a place to eat. Competition makes it all pretty reasonable. I usually have lunch in the parks but every other meal is off site unless it is a special occasion. Good grief, an all you can eat breakfast for $3.50. Beat that!

I know that if you can afford it, it is fun to spend your trip right there in the heart of the magic but if you don't have that kind of money then this is the best way to see it and not go broke.

 

[mad4themouse]

This may sound a little radical but I prefer to save the money before I go on vacation rather than while I'm there.

That doesn't mean that I won't seek out the best airfare and room rates that I possibly can. My money saving tips all involve doing the best pre-planning that I can. Room codes, frequent flier miles, park passes from online ticket brokers and a rental car paid thru rewards points from DH's credit card.

I'll buy meal vouchers from Connections after I review the menus for the various restaurants and decide how many and which kinds I will need. We'll eat one frugal meal a week during the year to save money to pay for the vouchers.

I'll use my DC discount where I can both before and during the trip. But once I'm there, I really hope to not worry myself about saving money. I'm hoping that I did enough of that before my trip started.

 

[Meagansmom]

The only thing about parking at DTD is you have to catch a bus to a hotel and then transfer at a hotel to go to one of the parks. If I remember right, I have never seen a bus that takes you directly to one of the parks. This will take some time! Sometimes my time is worth the money. This is going to average at least an hour of your time that could be spent in the parks. Next, on our last visit, this was new to us, they would ask us to show our hotel key. A couple of the bus drivers said that this was going to be new policy. They mentioned security was tightening up. I do know that everytime we pulled into our hotel in our rented car, it was 50 questions to get in. Just a thought.

 

[pointandshoot]

I agree that good planning is a money saver and helps you relax and enjoy your vacation. Multple trips to the same destination can be a money saver. When you factor in an AP, costs for a thermo-electric cooler, souvenirs that can be re-used such as mouse ears, autograph books, etc. , your cost per trip can be cheaper.

We all just need to go to Disney more.

 

[figment95]

I save a lot of money by buying hopper passes instead of the ultimate hopper. There is absolutely no way we could go to the parks, water parks and DTD all in one day. I have kids who would get really cranky if we didn't take a day off to swim at the hotel. Last year we went for 8 days and we bought 5 day PHPs and we still had plus options left that we didn't use. I think for most people UPH is not a bargain.

 

[Bete]

All the other posts have great ideas.

If you go by car bring your cooler with you to the park and have it filled with goodies and ready for consumption at the parks. Yes, you have to go back to the car for a break but it's not as bad as going back to the resort. Another way to look at this is you are not waiting in line to buy something; so, there's not as much time lost as you would think doing this. I feel this beats carrying a backpack, etc. You can put more variety in a cooler, too. You can have one person go get everything but with the new checking procedures I think that way is a drag.

Also, everyone usually has a pocket in their shirt, pants, jacket, etc. Bring a small goody with you in your pocket but be careful to not put it in a pocket that will crush it.

If you take a break from the park, eat off-site or in your room with store bought food. Remember, off-site breakfast dining can be the best deal of the day and you can do this before the park opens and not lose precious park time with eating. Getting an adult meal at the park and splitting it saves money. You can order kid meals for aduts, too. This leads me to precious park time.

Never quit early and by all means park hop and go to the parks that open later. Even if you have to take a nap mid-day for an hour or two you usually gain 4 to 6 hours in the day. This takes more planning but WOW do you accomplish alot more. You don't feel as exhausted this way, either.

Never use park hoppers for a half day. Enjoy your resort or DTD for that time.

If you are staying on-site by all means use early entry. Precious park time is at a premium; so, don't waste it. It's an amazing experience to go on rides without a wait or a small wait. You can be ready to get your fastpass first, too.

Be smart enough to walk away from a two-hour wait for a ride. You can do so much more not getting hung up on one ride.

If you want to last the whole day at the park spread your time with rides and shows where you can sit for a while.

I'll have more but I'll stop here for now.

 

[Leigha]

I'll add a tip I found on this board for drinks and that is to ask for drinks with no ice because they come cold which I always found to be true. Sometimes we wanted the ice but more often we requested none and they were OK with that. On the other hand, I love the freedom of the Ultimate hopper pass and splurge for that. We have often gone to one park in the morning, a water park that afternoon and finished at another park.

 

[JetMom]

I have found that the best way to save money at WDW is to plan a budget and stick to it.

I use the menus at www.wdwig.com to figure out how much counter service meals, special meals, and snacks will cost and work from there.

I also figure out a souvenier budget ahead of time to protect myself from all of those wonderful goodies.

My Dh and I sat down with our 3 DS's who were 9, 7, and 3 1/2 for our last trip and told them the ground rules before we left home - 1) One snack in the morning and one in the afternoon. Period. End of Story.
2) Souvenier $ - Each boy had $10 put in their wallet each morning. (They saved almost $300 in change in the year we were planning the trip and we were there for 10 days) Unused $ would carry over and there was one instance of borrowing from the next day.
3) T-Shirts fall under the category of basic clothing needs, so Mom & Dad would buy them each 3 T-Shirts of their choice over the course of the vacation.

We not only stayed with-in our budget, but we came home with almost $300 left over!

 

[firecracker]

We are a family of 4 (me, dh, and 2 dd) and our park hoppers for our last trip cost us approx. $750. This time, we're buying 7 day park hopper plusses and they'll last us 3 vacations!

We can only take short trips each time (about 4 days in the parks), so this time we'll use 3 park days and one plus, next time we'll use only plusses (we're going to Sea World and Busch Gardens next year--if I can force myself to stay out of the Disney parks, that is!!!), and then we'll have 4 days for 2005.

This means that our admission media will cost us under $600 per vacation.

 

[dzneelvr]

some more tips:

1. order appetizers rather than an entree.

2. make breakfast and a later lunch your 2 main meals. by avoiding the dinner cost on some days, you can splurge at dinner on others.

3. pick one dessert and ask for extra forks/spoons so everyone can have a taste

4. Store up the goodies you want to buy at the parks and hotels and then purchase all at the DTD Disney store at 10% off

5. if you have small children, let them purchase one stuffed "friend" on the first day and they get to carry that around. We found this really distracted our kids from wanting to buy a new "friend" each day.

6. don't be afraid to ask sizes of orders--many are large enough for two.

7. we've always stayed at the All Star Resorts and have found the cost of our evening meal to be much lower here than at the parks. we even asked the chef and he said the prime ribs are prepared the same, no matter where they are served

8. keep the water available. many times you want a soft drink or ice cream to quench your thirst when water would do nicely.

9. never eat on the run. if you're going to enjoy your food, sit down and relax. this will cut down on the "fast food" that you gobble walking around and an hour later can't remember you ate !

10. bring your own laundry detergent and dryer sheets from home. the on-site facilities are wonderful, but the products are pricey.

11. bring your own rain ponchos. you can purchase 99centers at Walmart and choose colors that are not Disney yellow. Bring 2 per person for a 7-10 day visit in the rainy months.

12. ask for samples when offered. the bookstore next to SciFi offers samples of it's delicious pastries//cookies and a few bites is sometimes all it takes

13. in EPCOT: many countries ( Japan China Mexico) offer lo cost counter service that has wonderful food. everyone choose something different and then sit and watch the world go by.

We love to spend at Disney--but it's satisfying to keep things economical so we get more !

 

[DiznEeyore]

Just wanted to say welcome, dzneelvr, and thanks for sharing the great tips!!

 

[montessori]

Make friends with a CM!

We have a few good bartender/waiter friends who work at Disney Resorts and they get 40% off merchandise!
Whenever I know we are going to a park with one of these guys, I bring some extra cash and do some serious shopping.

My husband also golfs with them at Disney golf courses for $25!


Also, we have gotten some unbelievable deals renting points from DVC owners.
Last year, my daughter and friend stayed in a studio at the Boardwalk for $65 per night.
We stayed Christmas week for about $80 per night.
This year for Christmas week, it was more but still a great deal.
I've already got my deal for next Christmas, the owner will call tomorrow (11 months out) to start working on the reservations. It will cost $640 for 5 nights.

The icing on the cake is that the owner is a wonderful person and we have become "friends", although just through emails.

It takes a little effort and commitment to rent points but it's worth it to stay at The Boardwalk, my FAVORITE Disney Resort!